- Message from the Head of School
- The SRV Model
- Mission/Philosophy
- Faculty/Staff
- SRV in Brief
- Board of Trustees
- School Environment
- Diversity
- Community Impact
- Directions
- SRV By the Numbers
- Symposium
School Environment
Our Outdoor Campus
Imagine an eight-acre classroom. Our unique grounds function as an outdoor learning laboratory. The wooded trails, Ridley Creek, the school's Organic Garden and Learning Center, sheep, and fields are part of the everyday learning environment. Our students become scientists and environmental stewards by measuring the health of the creek, restoring the watershed, engaging in resource conservation efforts, and helping to sustain the school lunch program through organic gardening. They appreciate time spent out of doors and enjoy sledding when it snows, fort-building, digging for hidden treasures in the sandboxes, or having a book group discussion under a tree. The parts of our outdoor campus include:
Ridley Creek is located at the edge of our campus. Students often spend time at (or in!) the creek with their teachers during classroom hikes or scientific explorations. During warm weather, they don water shoes or boots and enjoy mucking around during class or splashing about to cool off.
The Organic Garden and Learning Center is located behind the two fenced-in pools used during summer camp. In the garden students grow lettuces, herbs, tomatoes, beans,
strawberries, spinach, peppers, and more. Even preschoolers spend time in the garden and sometimes plant and harvest their own healthy snacks. The OGLC give us the opportunity to provide children with an authentic environment in which to learn about agriculture, nutrition and service.
The sheep pen is home to two of our favorite students, Dawn and Dusk, a Dorset and a Dorset-Shropshire mix. Fifth and sixth grade students take responsibility for caring for the sheep. This 'privilege' includes feeding them daily, tethering them throughout the campus (they are environmentally friendly grass cutters!)
and occasionally mucking out their pen.
The woods create a special environment in which children can fantasize, create, and build communities of their own during recess time. The array of complexly designed structures and accompanying economies that result (trading materials such as slate and shale for clay and charcoal) help children learn to navigate complex social structures within a fantasy setting.
Our enormous sandboxes provide more opportunity for building and exploration. Three sandboxes are strategically located throughout the campus so one never has to go too far to do some serious digging. Children enjoy creating sand cities with tunnels, bridges, rivers and dams or they love to plant 'buried treasure' and dig it up again. During any break or recess time, you will often find young and old girls and boys in the sand.
Our playground and field provide ideal sites for sports classes and play, as well as many areas to meet with friends or teachers, journal, sketch, or just relax. Swings, a slide and climbing structures tempt young bodies and keep them challenged. They are also used during our Afternoons program at the end of the day so that children have plenty of outdoor time after school.
The mighty ship lovingly named The Apple Core was built over the past few years through the volunteer efforts of parents and students. When we built the Grace Rotzel Center in 2000, students were concerned when some trees were felled to make room for the new building. They decided to raise funds to bring a portable mill onto our campus so they could recycle the wood into lumber to build with. Seven years later, we have an astonishing testament to the hard work and dedication of a committed group of volunteers led by children – and a fun piece of playground equipment to boot.
